Quest for water savings absorbs irrigation companies

Some very brainy people in San Marcos spend their working days
trying to figure out how to throw water.

In small drops.

Accurately.

For irrigation companies, water waste is almost too much to
bear.

"It pains me to see so much runoff," said John Wascher, product
manager for San Marcos-based Hunter Irrigation's pop-up and spray
nozzle products.

Irrigation technology has accelerated in recent years, Hunter
and other companies say, pushed by growing water restrictions. And
there's the financial incentive ----- with development nearly
comatose, selling improved systems allows the companies to make up
for what otherwise would be a precipitous drop in sales.

Wascher is product manager for several Hunter projects, the star
of which is the MP rotator irrigation head, a $9 product that
nonetheless cost millions of dollars to develop. The defining
element of its 20 parts: a rotating head with a dozen or more
grooves, each cut differently, that uniformly distribute the flow
and reduce losses from misting and runoff.

Water consumption can be cut by a third, the company says.

Hunter makes the new heads ---- and thousands of other parts
---- at its complex of nine buildings, which includes a lab
outfitted with 714 catchments, each of which can measure water
falling into them up to a thousandth of an inch. The company uses
the system to test new sprinklers.

MP stands for "matched precipitation," a reference to the even
distribution of the irrigation water.

Water has emerged as the most pivotal issue in the state,
especially in the south where it ultimately governs what can be
built and where. That has pushed research in irrigation
products.

About 80 percent of water in California goes to agriculture; the
rest flows to metropolitan areas, where half goes to landscaping.
Half of that water is wasted, irrigation experts say; stopping the
waste would save billions of dollars.

California moves water hundreds of miles from sources in the
northern mountains and delta and the Colorado River to fulfill the
needs of farmers and city dwellers. Most experts agree the
population is growing faster than the available water supply, which
already has been exacerbated by several years of drought.

Californians have cut back usage of late ---- about 10 percent,
responding to mandates from water districts ordered to reduce use
or face steep fines.

Irrigation runoff is mostly a function of too much too fast ----
Southern California soils typically can absorb about a third of an
inch of water an hour. Rainfall or irrigation in excess of that
rate runs off.

"Most people use way too much," says Dave Johnson, director of
corporate marketing for Rain Bird, the Azusa-based maker of
irrigation systems for landscaping and agriculture.

The company just introduced an irrigation controller that
measures temperature, wind, humidity and other weather variables
and adjusts the irrigation accordingly. Hunter also makes a line of
new-generation controllers.

Basic sensor and controller systems begin at about $150 and run
to about $450 for a more complex system that Rain Bird, Hunter and
other companies say can pay for themselves in months.

Irrigation companies also are jazzed about the emerging "water
sense" labels, certification that products are water efficient.

"It's starting to get traction now," says Rain Bird's Johnson,
who predicts the blue and green water-sense drop logo soon will
become as respected and well-known as the Energy Star label on
electric appliances.

Hunter and other irrigation companies also are making more
intricate controllers. The newest ones include gauges that measure
temperature. humidity, and cloud cover ---- and calculate
irrigation water distribution accordingly.

But the U.S. remains the biggest market, and the push to cut
water waste is intensifying.

Most districts in Southern California have adopted tiered water
rates, under which the cost rises with consumption. Moreover, water
districts can levy fines against homeowners and companies for
allowing water to run off.

Hunter, Rain Bird and other irrigation companies prefer to
stress more positive motivations to reduce irrigation water
waste.

"We could save billions of dollars," says Greg Hunter, executive
vice president for marketing and a third-generation family member
at the company his grandfather founded.

Efficiency beats an alternative that some recession-stressed
companies and homeowners have adopted, he says ---- turning off the
water altogether and letting the landscaping wither and die.